Unrecognizable Faces
by werestillflying
Summary: When the Flock is found badly hurt by Booth and Bones, they may just have found sanctuary at last. Takes place during SoF. Only BoothxBones & AngelaxHodgins Romance. Maybe some Fax. Read inside for more info. Rated T to be safe
1. Trusting

This takes place anytime after Booth has the brain tumor and during the beginning of School's Out Forever after they get in the fight with the Erasers with wings. A few changes to the fight scene; They were loosing and all but Angel were left. Angel told the remaining Erasers to retreat and went down to the rest of the Flock. They were fighting over a field not the ocean. Oh and the FBI knows nothing about Erasers or Jeb or the School. Their powers are the same as at the end of Max (except for the gills and appearance changing) because I don't feel like re-reading the first book again. Also there is no Total, I'm sorry but he won't work in this story.

Most of the Bones scenes will be third person and The Maximum Ride scenes Max's POV. (Sorry for my horrible third person POV this started out as a writing excercise.)

The parts within the * * are parts taken almost directly from books.

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride or Bones.

If there are any more questions please feel free to PM me.

* * *

"Bones we've got a new case," he called out as he entered her office with Sweets in tow, "Sweets is coming along, we need him."

"Why do we-" the doctor began to ask when she was cut off.

"Don't bother asking him, he won't tell me anything about what's going on." Sweets said.

"No Sweets I didn't tell you 'cause I don't feel like explaining things twice." They got into Booths car and began to drive. "Look Sweets, I was hoping you would help with the little kids they found at the scene. We have them surrounded but the youngest girl is just sitting there yelling at the officers not to go near the five other kids who are alive. She's covered in dirt and blood and it looks like she's injured. When we mentioned that we had doctors that could help them she screamed even louder at the officers to stay away and for someone named Max."

"So why are we working this Booth? The other victims must be recently dead?" Brennan inquired.

"You'll see when we get there." The rest of the car ride was spent in silence.

When they got there a young girl was standing in the middle of the field she was surrounded by dead bodies. She was completely unfazed by the bodies but was more preoccupied with making sure no one hurt her friends. Every time someone tried to approach she would yell stop and and they would instantly stop in their paths. The team was confused at why the officers did not simply keep going until they tried. As soon as she yelled Stop. The doctors and the agent immediately stopped in their tracks, unable to move. They stepped backwards and took a minute to figure out what was going on.

"Why the hell can't we get to them?" Booth asked angrily.

"Booth," Brennan called, "These bodies look as though they are part wolf and they have wings on their backs. Is this some kind of joke because if so it isn't amusing at all. How many are there?"

"Count outside of where we can go says 37." He stopped to look around and said, "They've checked a mile radius and they keep finding them spread out more than this."

"Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth, look." The young psychologist was pointing out the fact that one of the human girls had jumped up and was now walking around like nothing was wrong with the scene surrounding her, more focused on looking for someone.

_

* * *

__What the hell?_ I thought as I sprang to my feet snapping my wings in first. My wing seared in pain but I knew that was the least of my troubles as I looked around horrified at the amount of flashing lights and saw Angel standing a few feet away.

_"I kept them away as long as I could Max, but I'm getting tired and Nudge and Gazzy's wings are still visible," she told me._

I nodded and went to Nudge first she needed more time. I shook her, "Nudge wake up you need to pull in your wings." She stirred and made a grumbly noise.

I walked over to Gazzy who was already slowly waking up. "Gazzy pull your wings in."

The two of them were up in a few seconds wings retracted on full alert. I walked over to where Iggy was and saw his arm was in horrible shape. There was a bone nearly penetrating the skin and it was not something we could fix, we might have to get help from others. My worst fears were realized as I walked over to where Fang was crumpled in a heap. His wings were retracted but he had huge gashes across his front.

I looked around at the people surrounding us. Pulling a U and A was out of the question. I was pretty sure my wing was damaged and I was the only one who could carry Fang. Iggy was conscious now as he walked over to me cradling his arm. "Angel says we're surrounded. What are we going to do?"

I had absolutely no idea but I knew we were going to have to trust someone. I just didn't know who. Iggy pulled out a strip of cloth to hold up his arm. The situation got worse as Angel collapsed from sheer exhaustion and I realized they would soon be able to come to us. I walked over and picked her up and went back to where Fang was. Apparently they realized it too because three people began to walk towards us. I took a fighting stance until the Voice said to me _Trust them because you can't trust anyone else._

I stood up straight and we gathered around Fang. Iggy checking the extent of Fangs wounds. I wondered if we should use our real names or how much to tell them about us. _Tell them everything_ the Voice said.

They had reached us and the woman instantly went to help with Fang when I went to block her. _Trust Max. _I stepped back and allowed her to help them

"Who are you?" the younger man asked.

I took a deep breath and said, "My name is Max, this is Nudge, Gazzy, the one I'm holding is Angel, Fang's the one on the ground, and the one next to him is Iggy"

They nodded as the doctor asked, "Do you know what these things are?"

"They're called Erasers. They are human-lupine hybrids and I guess there is some avian in the mix this time too." I said waiting to see if they would laugh or just stare. They took the second option until the woman spoke up.

"His heart beat is fast and erratic and he's losing a lot of blood, we need to get him to a hospital, fast," she said.

I looked at the others covered in bruises and cuts and said, "Alright, but we aren't being separated and we'll only talk to you."

The older man nodded his head and called out to the EMT's, "Lets get a stretcher over here quick!"

The woman was still next to Fang when she saw Iggy's arm. She asked him, "May I look at your arm?"

Iggy waited for the go from me before he removed his arm from the make-shift sling. She looked at it very carefully and asked him, "How did this happen?"

He nodded at the field of Erasers laying dead in front of us and said, "One of them caught me by surprise."

"This break was from a frontal attack." she said.

"Yep, didn't see it coming." he said with a smile on his face.

All three of the people were confused so I put them out of their misery, "Iggy's blind."

They looked shocked and the woman said, "I couldn't even tell."

The stretcher came and they lifted Fang onto it carefully. The older man said, "You can't all fit in the ambulance. But I can take a few of you in my car."

I nodded as I said, "I'll ride with Fang and Iggy. Can you take the younger three? Can you carry Angel? She's just tired is all."

He nodded and took her from her arms as the EMTs were loading him into the ambulance. The other three were getting into a large SUV. I waved to them and hopped into the ambulance.

*The antiseptic smell inside of the ambulance made my stomach knot with nightmare memories of the School. I looked down at Fang's hand, now had a saline drip taped into it.

"He's fibrillating," one paramedic said urgently.

He pointed to the portable EKG machine, which was going _thump-thump-thump _very fast. "Get the paddles."

"No!" I said loudly, startling everyone. The paramedic held the shock paddles, looking surprised. "That's_ always _how his heart is. It _always _beats really fast. That's _normal _for him." I don't know if the paramedic would have used the paddles anyway, but just then we roared into the

hospital emergency bay and it was chaos.

Orderlies ran out with a gurney, the EMT guys started rattling off Fang's stats to a nurse. And then Fang was wheeled out of sight, down a hall and through some doors. *

I followed Iggy into the room where they were having him wait until they could get someone to set his bone.

* * *

The agent and the two doctors had gotten the kids into the SUV and were speedily following the ambulance when the Angel woke up.

"Where's Max?" she asked sweetly.

"She's in the ambulance in front of us with the two other boys." the older man said.

"What are your names?" she questioned. "We don't really know what to call you."

"I'm Agent Booth, this is Dr. Brennan, and the man in the back is Dr. Sweets."

The three adults noticed the kids tense when they mentioned the doctors names. Again the youngest one spoke for all three of them. "You're good doctors right?"

"Dr. Brennan is the best and Sweets is one of the youngest in his field, so yeah they're pretty good."

"No I mean you're nice aren't you? You don't hurt people or experiment on them?" she asked. The question seemed morbid to the psychologist especially since he could tell she was serious.

At this Brennan turned around in her seat to face the little girl she saw that the other two children were waiting for her answer as well. "I don't hurt people, we work together with some other people to help catch people who do hurt other people."

"That's good and Max says that we can trust you with everything," the little girl said. "Why do you call her Bones?"

"She's a forensic anthropologist, she studies bones, so I – wait I haven't called her Bones since we met you." Booth said.

"Not out loud you haven't. I can read minds." _I can also project my thoughts into people's minds too._ Angel was giggling at the adults speechless reactions.

After they parked they went inside to find the three other kids. They found Max and Iggy in a hospital room. Agent Booth said, "You have some explaining to do."

* * *

I sighed reluctantly hoping that this was a dream, that I didn't have to do this. _Maximum just trust them. _"Please before I explain, can you promise me that you will only tell what is absolutely necessary to anyone else?" The agent and the doctors nodded, Angel filled me in on what they already knew. "You know those human-lupine hybrids? They were created to hunt us down and kill us. They were created at a place called the School. Which by happy coincidence is also where we were . . um . . made I guess you could say. We are human-avian hybrids, 98% human and 2% bird." I looked up to see if they were following what I was saying (they were!) when I continued, "We don't know if we were born with the avian DNA already grafted into us or if it was grafted after. Four years ago someone named Jeb helped to break us out and helped us learn how to fight and taught us that we shouldn't trust anyone. A little while ago he disappeared and we were left alone until our house was attacked by those Erasers. They kidnapped Angel and we went after them. We managed to get her out of there after we were captured. Angel had found out some information while she was there that our real parents might be out there somewhere. So we headed to this place in New York called the Institute for Higher Living. We got in through an underground entrance and released some of the experiments they had in there. Most of them weren't even human looking. Then Jeb's son Ari who they made an Eraser came in. He tried to kill us, he's only seven, he slipped and I kicked him. I got his neck, I think he's dead. There were more erasers coming after us, we had to go. Jeb was there he betrayed us, but the last thing he said was that Ari was my brother and that I had killed him. But when those new flying Erasers attacked us Ari was there and alive. He's the one who hurt Fang." I stopped, hoping they would not freak out.

"So you said you had avian DNA grafted into you. What did it do to you?" Dr. Brennan asked.

"Thats the part we have to show you for you to believe." They looked confused. My wing was still sore, I think I might have fractured it, Iggy was injured, and both Nudge and Gazzys wingspans were too big for the tiny room we were in. _Angel you have the smallest wingspan could you do the honors?_

"Sure Max," she said as she took off her windbreaker. She spread her wings as the adults looked on in awe.

* * *

AN: I'm sorry for leaving it off there but I have to finish filling out college apps. After that I'm basically done worrying about school or applications, so I'll have more time to work on this and my non-fanfiction writing.


	2. Injury

Disclaimer: I do not own Bones or Maximum Ride. And I do not own the parts between the *asterisks*

* * *

They just sat there staring at Angel's wings for a good minute before Angel said "Thank you." We looked at her, me with one eyebrow raised, "He said that my name fits me well," she nodded towards Agent Booth. I smiled and silently said _Angel you can put your wings away now._

After her wings were put away I turned to them and said, "You're not going to tell anyone are you?" After they assured me they wouldn't I said to them, "Good because I kinda need some help. I know you're not a doctor that treats people but I don't really want anyone else seeing my wings. We can't really trust anyone. I think I hurt my wing but Iggy can't help because of his arm so I kinda need someone to check it. Would you mind?"

She looked a bit surprised and said, "I'll do the best I can."

I took off my jacket and slowly spread my wing, I looked back at at in and saw it caked with blood. I spread it a little more and winced as a searing pain spread through my wing. I grabbed a hold of the table Iggy was sitting on for support. She walked over to the small station with all of the equipment on it and grabbed some gloves. She searched for the source of my blood and I definitely noticed when she found it. She looked at me and said, "It looks like a bullet hit the edge of your bone and some of the muscle."

"Not again," why do I always get hit in the wings? The doctor was looking at me confused.

"Have you been shot before?" Agent Booth asked.

I looked at her and the rest adults, "I've gotten hit a few times but we've all been shot at so many times I can't count."

"So you can actually fly?" Dr. Sweets asked.

Gazzy answered before I could, "Well, Duh!"

"How old are you? Normally I can tell but you all seem to appear a different age than you really are," she asked.

"Fang, Iggy, and I are fourteen. Nudge is eleven, Gazzy is eight, and Angel is six." The adults looked at me slightly horrified.

"I'll try to bandage up the bullet wound as best I can but I don't think it will heal for a few weeks." She went over to get some gauze and disinfectant to clean it out.

"It'll only take a few days to heal completely." She looked at me before beginning to fix my wing her eyes wide with disbelief.

As soon as she opened the bottle that contained the antiseptic, we all noticeably stiffened. The other doctor, Dr Sweets, was the first one to comment, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just the smell of the antiseptic, brings back bad memories." They nodded and I winced as the doctor finished cleaning out my wounds. She carefully placed a larger piece of gauze over where the wound was and taped it on. I slowly retracted my wing, wincing at the pain.

"Why are you trusting us if you don't trust anyone?" Dr. Sweets asked.

This is the part I was actually dreading the most. They were just gonna call me crazy. "You're the psychologist, you tell me."

"Well since you brought that up. . . you are deflecting, there is an actual reason behind that and you're afraid of it." Crap! He's good. Iggy snickered behind me.

_Max, did I not say you could trust them completely? Just let it out!_ "Okay, the truth is I have this Voice inside my head, I thought it was Jeb communicating with me somehow, but now I'm not sure." I looked at them, they looked at me like I was crazy. It was going so well until this point.

"She's not crazy!" That's my Angel. "If she was I would be able to hear it talk to her, but I can't."

"Okay, well then what does this voice have to do with why you are trusting us?" he asked.

"It told me that we can trust you. Only you. I have no idea why but its always right." I said with a shrug.

They nodded confused (who wouldn't be) and Angel spoke to me, "Max, there's a doctor coming to talk to you about Fang. He doesn't know what to do."

I grabbed my windbreaker and carefully put it back on, "Thanks sweetie."

We sat in there for a little while until a doctor came back in looking quite frazzled. "Can you come with me? I need to ask you a few questions." Three taps on the back of Iggy's hand left him in charge.

We sat in there for a little while until a doctor came back in looking quite frazzled. "Can you come with me? I need to ask you a few questions."

*Walking quickly, the doctor looked at me in that zoo-exhibit way I've become familiar with. My heart sank.

We pushed through heavy double doors and were in a small, tiled, very scary room. Fang was on a gurney. He had a tube going down his throat and more tubes attached to his arms. I pressed my hand to my mouth. I'm not squeamish, but cracked, painful memories of the experiments done on us at the School were seeping into my brain, and I wished that my Voice would keep talking, say something really annoying to distract me.

Another doctor and a nurse were standing by Fang. They had cut his shirt and jacket off. The horrible jagged claw wounds in his side were still bleeding. Now that he had me here, the doctor didn't seem to know what to say. "Will — will he be okay?" 1 asked, feeling as if I were choking. Life without Fang was unimaginable. "We don't know," said one of the doctors, looking very concerned.

The woman doctor gestured to Fang. "How well do you know him?"

"He's my brother."

"Are you — _like _him?" she asked.

"Yes." I set my jaw and kept my eyes on Fang. I felt my muscles tighten, a new, unwelcome flood of adrenaline icing its way through my veins. _Okay, first I would slam this little trolley against the nurse's legs. …_

"So you can help us," the first doctor said, sounding relieved. "Cause we're not recognizing this stuff. What about his heartbeat?"

I looked at the EKG. The blips were fast and erratic. "It should be smoother," I said. "And faster." I snapped my fingers a bunch of times to demonstrate.

"Can I... ?" the doctor asked, motioning his stethoscope toward me. I nodded warily.

He listened to my heart, a look of total amazement on his face. Then he moved his stethoscope over my stomach, in several places. "Why can I hear _air _moving down here?" he asked.

"We have air sacs," I explained quietly, feeling as if my throat were closing. My hands tightened into fists by my sides. "We have lungs, but we also have smaller air sacs. And — our stomachs are different. Our bones. Our blood." Gee, pretty much everything.

"And you have ... _win_g_s_?" the second doctor asked in a low voice. I nodded.

"You're a human-avian hybrid," the first doctor said.

"That's one name for it," I said tightly. As opposed to, say, mutant freak.

The female doctor became all business. "We're giving him saline, to counter the shock, but he needs blood."

"You can't give him hu— regular blood," I said. All the scientific knowledge I'd gleaned over the years from reports and experiments started coming to the surface. "Our red blood cells have nuclei." Like birds'.

The doctor nodded. "Get ready to give him a donation," she instructed me briskly. *

* * *

A little while later I was sitting in a new room with the rest of the Flock (minus Fang) and the three adults. Dr. Brennan said to me, "You shouldn't have donated blood when you were injured."

I shrugged, "I'm fine."

She handed me a tray of food, "Angel informed me how much you need to eat a day."

"Thanks," I smiled, "Anything else she informed you of?"

"She informed us of all of your powers and that Iggy and Gazzy often make bombs?" she looked at me and I felt a little worried.

"Yeah they had to, so we could get away from the Erasers." I ate hungrily in between talking.

"But isn't Iggy blind?" she asked. Obviously she hadn't believed Angel at first.

"Yeah thats why Gazzy is his eyes for him. Never had a mishap."

"So. . ." she said, "Booth is going to _convince_ the doctors not to repeat anything they've heard or seen about you and Booth and Sweets can lie on the report. Make it seem like you were just attacked by the creatures and you have Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, that way the bureau won't bother you." I could've hugged her right there and then but I mean c'mon my flock was nearby and I was still Maximum Ride.

"Thanks," I guess we were right to trust them.

"One more thing." she said, "Booth and Sweets can't let you because of policy but if you want to you can come stay with me in my apartment"

This was just so amazing it was almost too good to believe …

* * *

AN: I am so sorry, this was a short chapter it took forever for me to write. I've been having trouble with the Internet and college apps are so hard and depressing to fill out. After Christmas, posts will be much more regular and longer. Thanks for waiting and a special thanks to fallenangelofheven for subscribing and favoriting and firedrakegirl for subscribing favoriting and reviewing!


	3. Healing

Disclaimer: I do not own Bones or Maximum Ride. And I do not own the parts between the *asterisks*

* * *

"I don't know," I said, "they always manage to find us eventually."

"Well we can try and keep you from being found as best we can."

This was just was too awesome, I didn't want to make a rash decision, so I decided to ask Fang when he woke up. "I'll think about it, but that sounds great."

She nodded and got up and walked away, I was happy she wasn't crowding me, it made things a lot more calming. I sat there eating nonstop for a while until one of the doctors that was working on Fang came out. I immediately jumped up ready to run from here with the rest of the Flock if anything had . . . gone wrong.

He came over, "Are you Max?" I nodded and he signaled for me to follow him outside the room. I followed him and stood a short distance from the door. He took a few steps closer to me, I locked my jaw and stepped back, leaving more room between him and me. He shifted uncomfortably, "He's out of surgery and he's in stable condition. We managed to patch up his wounds and stop all of the hemorrhaging. One of his main artery's had been hit and also one of his . . . air sacs."

"So how long 'till he's conscious? How long 'till I can see him?" I was on edge already and the doctor was making me wicked uncomfortable.

"He should be conscious in under an hour and he should probably take it easy for at least three weeks." That meant about 6 days but c'mon, that's still way too long! "I do have a few questions about you though. Can you tell me how-"

"Hey Doc, don't you have some other patients to take care of? Come on Max, let's go wait for Fang to wake up." Agent Booth managed to stop the doctor's questions and we left the doctor standing there.

"Thanks," I said, "So, is this like your case or something? Is that why you're helping us?"

"Officially yes, but we really do just want to help you. We're not going to turn you in or anything.

I nodded my head in understanding. It looked like we might be going with them after all. _That's good Max, everyone needs help sooner or later. _

_I'm NOT asking for help! I just don't have anything else left to do, at least until Fang is better._

_Semantics, Max. _I sighed and frowned, frustrated with the Voice. Agent Booth looked down at me and asked me what was wrong. I shrugged it off as my wing hurting. We went back into the room with the others and I quietly sat there for what must have been a second until Dr. Brennan came back over and tried (keyword tried) to whisper to me quietly. "So did you get a chance to think about my offer or talk about it with the others."

"Well it's kinda a small room and our hearing is extremely good so they kinda already know about it. What they don't know is that I decided that we're going to go with you. I thought it over and I decided that it would be the best thing for all of us right now. As long as we can stay with him for tonight."

"That's great and I'm assuming that they heard this."

I saw Nudge, Angel and Gazzy coming over to us, "Yep." Angel jumped up on to my lap and Nudge gave me a huge hug.

"Fang is going to be alright?" I nodded to Nudge and they all perked up. "And we're going to stay with Dr. Brennan for a while? Ohmygosh it'll be just like the mountain house! But there will be other people nearby and Jeb won't be there and it probably won't be a-humph" Iggy had came over and clamped his hand over Nudge's mouth.

A little while later we were heading to the room they had moved Fang to. "This is his room," Agent Booth said as we stood outside a room, "I made sure no one knows that he's here and no one will be going in unless they have to."

I said thanks and we went into Fang's room. I looked about the room quickly finding all the possible exits. There was a second bed in the room, empty, and going to sleep never looked so nice. But first things first. Fang was sitting up in his bed his eyes half shut as we walked into the room. "Hey," always with the few words.

"Feeling any better?" I asked. "You at least look better than when you had that giant gaping wound in you."

He nodded slightly and answered with, "Yeah, they fixed me up pretty good."

"And they said that you should be out of here in about a week."

"Tomorrow then?" I nodded.

"Yeah probably and I kinda have some other news." I told him that we were going to be staying with Dr. Brennan for a while and what the Voice had told me. I also told him about my wing and Iggy's arm. He was fine with my decision and was worried about my wing.

I decided to take first shift for lookout much to Fang's protests. The adults had gotten some mats for us to lay on so we stacked our fists on top of each other and the little ones and Iggy laid down, Gazzy and Angel on the bed and Iggy and Nudge on the ground, I sat in a chair until Iggy and I switched. Dr. Sweets had gone home a short while before to change, so it was just Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth sitting in the room with me. They asked me why I wasn't going to sleep.

"We don't go to sleep at the same time ever. One of us is always keeping watch no matter what. It's not that we don't trust you, it's just something we were raised doing." I saw the looks on their faces; they felt bad for us.

As if the worst timing ever my head started hurting. I ignored it hoping it would go away. Too bad things never go the way I want them to. Another brain explosion, not as bad as the first few but it still hurt like crazy. Images again began to fill my vision, the sounds, assaulting my senses. I could hear the two of them calling my name, my hands gripped the arms of the chair I was sitting in, my teeth clenched, my breaths were sharp and brief. Then it just started to slowly go away, and yeah I mean _slowly_!

"Max! Max! Are you all right? Max!" I heard Agent Booth's voice shouting to me.

I kept my eyes closed. "Yeah, I'm fine." I gritted my teeth and slowly opened my eyes. The light hurt but I forced myself to open my eyes. "Did I wake anyone up?"

"Just me." Fang said from the bed. "Another brain attack?"

"Yeah, not nearly as bad as last time. It's already stopped hurting . . . mostly."

"Are you sure we can't help you?" Agent Booth asked.

"Yeah, it happens all the time. I'll be fine in a little while. It's just my brain getting used to the Voice being there. It's not even nearly as bad as it was."

"It was worse than that?" I nodded. "Something could be wrong, you could need medical attention." She looked over at Agent Booth.

"I promise you it's fine they are getting to be not as bad and not as long, I wouldn't be surprised if they went away all together soon." From their faces they still didn't believe me. "I promise that I will be fine. Even now the headache is almost gone, don't worry I can deal with it."

"You should at least get some sleep, you look exhausted," she said.

"I would, but its my watch and I'm not letting Fang take it, he's more hurt than I am." Fang shook his head at me, so I gave his one of my "famous" looks. He kept his mouth shut.

"I can keep an eye on things, I have a gun no one will hurt you. Why don't you get some rest. I think I'll notice if anyone tries to come into the room."

"They'll try anything, they'll dress up like doctors or nurses, and when they're in their human form they have no trouble getting what they want." I honestly couldn't believe that I was gonna do this.

He nodded, "No one comes in or goes out. At all."

I said OK and told Fang to go back to sleep. I grabbed one of the extra pillows and a blanket and laid down in an open spot as close to the door as I could. They asked me if I wanted a mat, but I shook my head.

* * *

I had to admit when I got up the next morning, I felt a lot better. The others looked a lot better too. They had cleaned up a bit and gotten into the few extra clothes they had. Everyone was safe and Fang looked a lot better than last night. The two adults were still here and there were a few trays of food sitting out. I ate, then got cleaned up, and by the time I was done the others had the TV on and were flipping through the channels looking for something to watch. Fang was annoyed and just wanted to get out of bed and eat some real food.

A little while later a doctor came in to change Fang's bandages. He was kinda confused when he realized that Fang's wounds were almost healed. Fang tried to get up but Dr. Brennan stopped him. "Just wait for a few minutes." She told the doctor to just put some more bandages on it and asked him to leave. "How is that possible?"

"I told you we heal fast."

"I thought you were exaggerating just a bit."

"Nope," I said popping the "p".

"Well," Agent Booth said, "The doctors said they don't want you to go anywhere, but I don't really see you staying here making things any better."

"Cool, so I can go?" Fang said sitting up.

"Wait," Dr. Brennan said, "are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine, however real food would be more then welcome."

"But you still have an IV."

"Yeah, so?"

* * *

AN A few things:

1. So I'm really sorry about now updating, especially because I've gotten so many reviews. My best friend, her mom and I got in a car accident. We were headed to pick up her cousin from daycare and then go to a christmas party with the rest of her family and some of our friends. A car rear-ended us and my friend has metal rods in her back so it hurt her a lot. We spent the next couple hours in the emergency room with her in a neck brace, an IV, and given a shot of morphine. She's OK now but I didn't really get a chance to write for a few days. Again sorry

2. Also about the story, I'm sorry it's shorter, but if I hadn't stopped here then there would have been no update for another two weeks.

3. Also about the story, sorry if Booth and Bones seem a little OOC. Normally I would be able to watch a few episodes and get back into their characters, but I was writing this at a hotel and all I had were episodes of Dexter on hand . . . so sorry.

4. Another thing, I got a review about my incorrect use of avian and something about aves being correct. I'm truly sorry if I'm using the incorrect things but right now I'm struggling through Physics because I refused to take Anatomy and cut open a cat, so I know nothing about that part of this.

5. One last thing, this chapter would never had been possible without music blocking out my little brother and sister. So thanks to the two Glee soundtracks and the soundtrack for the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Once More With Feeling. (Yes I'm both a Gleek and a Whedonite)


	4. Questions

After Fang got to eat and he was discharged (against the doctor's wishes of course), we all went down to the agents car and we were on our way. Nudge was a chatterbox as usual asking about everything she saw out the window. Dr. Brennan answered all of her questions about the various buildings and monuments. As we came to a stop I held my breath, Fang reached over for my hand and squeezed it, letting it go soon after so the kids didn't see.

We walked into the building, which was pretty nice and made our way to the elevator. The elevator was not exactly small, I mean we all fit fine with some room to spare, but when you were claustrophobic it seemed a lot smaller. The ride seemed much longer than it should have. We were all stiff as anything and I'm pretty sure the adults noticed. They didn't question it though which was fine. Once we made it into the apartment, we kinda just stood there.

"There are two guest rooms, so boys in one, girls in the other. Unfortunately there's only one bed in each, so I guess we can -"

I cut her off, "It's fine we can share. Thanks again, so much."

She nodded and showed us to our rooms. I smiled when I saw the beds, they were queen sized, we could all fit fine. She started to tell us that we could unpack until she realized we only had small backpacks. So instead she asked us if any clothes needed to be washed.

"Just the clothes we were wearing when you found us."

"Are those all the clothes you have?" she asked.

I nodded. She told us we could put our other clothes in the washing machine and that we could go shopping for some more clothes later today if we wanted. I refused vehemently but she was persistent to no end. Agent Booth heard the end of this conversation and told me to just give up. I said OK after that.

Dr. Brennan also told Fang he should lay on the couch for a little while. She said that even if we did heal quickly an average person would have to be on bed rest for at least two weeks. He didn't argue so I assumed he was still tired. My assumption proved correct when he fell back asleep a few minutes later. Nudge was describing the apartment to Iggy, who was listening intently and from what I could hear Angel was making up some kind of game with Gazzy. Things were starting to get better, for the first time in a while I felt calm. I knew the Erasers would be back eventually, we couldn't stay here for too long I didn't want these people getting caught up in this mess. Angel looked up at me sitting on the arm chair and frowned. _"Stay out of my head sweetie."_

_"Sorry Max." _She was so good but she needed to learn to stop invading my thoughts. I sighed and smiled at her.

"Max," I turned my head sharply to face agent Booth, "Can we talk to you?" I nodded and walked past them to a place where the flock couldn't hear, but I could still see them. "I know you told us your first names, but do you think you could tell us your last names?"

"We actually don't know our real first names except for Nudge. We named ourselves when we were little, my first name is really Maximum. When I was still little, I asked Jeb if I had a last name and he asked me if I wanted one. So I gave myself the last name Ride."

"The scientists didn't name you?" Agent Booth asked.

"Nope, just a number," I smirked, he was trying to figure that one out.

"A number, as in the number of an experiment?" Dr Brennan asked.

"Yep," they looked horrified. "It's fine really."

"That's not fine, you were just an experiment to them," Agent Booth seemed pretty mad about what they did.

"Yeah, we were. Can we drop this?" they nodded, "Thanks."

"One more question," he seemed almost nervous to ask, "Where is the School?"

"California," I wasn't going to give them any more information than that. Agent Booth seemed glad I was giving some information, and he looked like he wanted to take 'em down. They didn't know what they were getting into. "It would be a bad idea to try and go after them. It's more than just them, they have more than just that building. You wouldn't be able to get them."

He nodded, seeing the look I was giving them, he knew not to persist. He sighed, "We kind of have a problem. I know you don't want us to go after them, but we have a lot of bodies and nothing to say to our bosses. Without going after them we have nothing to do."

"Tell them it was a group of plastic surgery addicts escaped from a psych ward someplace." I smiled when I saw the looks they were giving me. "OK, so that won't work."

"No, it won't. We need evidence."

They tried to suggest a few things we could do, but I was extremely adamant about not letting others in on what we were.

* * *

When Fang woke up he was kinda mad I had let him sleep so much, but that didn't last for too long. Even though he said he was feeling a lot better, he winced slightly when he first stood up. The look he gave me told me that he didn't want to sit around anymore, I understood where he was coming from so I let it go.

Dr. Brennan meant it when she said she was going to take us to get clothes. We got some new clothes, nothing too flashy, jeans and shirts. We got new windbreakers, ours were all torn up. Being in new clothes, that fit a lot better, felt great. After we had lunch, which tasted awesome being freshly made and all, we sat on couches and talked. They needed to go into work and I agreed for us to go with them. This was such a bad idea, us actually going somewhere we were expected to act civilized. I gave the younger ones (and Iggy) some rules to follow.

We headed out and soon we were at this huge building. Once we were at the doors Iggy wrinkled his nose and shivered, a few seconds later and I realized why. I could smell antiseptic and other chemicals filling the air and I shivered. Angel hugged onto my leg but kept walking. Agent Booth asked me what was wrong.

"It's the antiseptic smell, bad memories," he nodded remembering us telling him about it. "This place is pretty open though so it's not too bad."

He looked like he was going to ask me something but before he could we were at an office. Dr. Brennan walked in and hung up her jacket, so I guessed it was her office. There was a flashing on her computer screen and she walked over and hit a few buttons. A face appeared on the screen and I heard someone instantly talking, "Hey sweetie, coming in a little late I see."

"Do you have anything for me Angela?"

"I have the facial reconstruction you asked for yesterday, before you left."

"Thanks, I'll be there in a few minutes. Cam and Hodgins are here too correct?"

"Yeah they're both in their offices," she sounded confused. "Who's there with you? I can see someone in the background."

Agent Booth walked behind her and said, "Hey, Angela, why don't you come down to Bones office."

I interrupted, "Can we go somewhere else? People are kind of staring at us, it's . . . uncomfortable." I pointed out the windows covering an entire wall of the office where people would pass by going slower to look in.

"I knew someone else was there. Who is it, or Who are they?"

"Just some kids that are going to be staying at Bones' place for a bit. Can we come up there for a little while."

"Sure, Brennan are you going to tell me what's going on?" she sounded like she was both annoyed and patient at the same time with the limited information that Dr. Brennan was giving her.

"Most likely," she clicked out of the window. The rest of the flock was sitting quietly for the first time in a while, not really much else to do. Fang was more quiet than usual, he hadn't spoken since we got here, I think he's still in pain.

"Bones, why don't I take them there. You can go round up Cam and Hodgins," before she could reply he turned to us, gesturing to follow.

As we were heading to the other office he turned his head just enough to say to us, "I think you'll like Angela's office a little more." Once we had gotten there I saw what he meant, the windows were blocked and it was closed off but not in a confining way. There was paintings up around the room. The most notable thing however was the woman in the front of the large screen holding a small device that looked like it controlled the screen.

"Whoa that's so cool. That's the biggest screen I've ever seen. That must be a pretty awesome computer. I love computers, but we don't get to use them that much becau-humph," Iggy's good hand went over her mouth, effectively silencing her.

"Thanks Ig," he nodded.

The woman had turned around during Nudge's rambling and was amusedly smiling, "Well aren't you a chatterbox," she walked closer, "I'm Angela."

Just then Dr. Brennan walked in with two people, a man and woman. The man had curly hair and a beard, he was dressed so . . not like a doctor but he was wearing a blue lab coat like Dr. Brennan's. The woman had skin a similar color to Nudge's but her hair was pulled tightly back and she was dressed very professionally. The man spoke first, "Hey, what's with the kids?"

My eyes narrowed. "These are the kids we found at the crime scene," Dr. Brennan said.

"Did they survive whatever attacked those things?" the woman asked.

Iggy snorted and I tried to elbow him but he quickly dodged it. They looked at us wondering what he had snorted for. I looked as innocent as possible, "Not exactly."

"So, why are they-" she attempted to ask about us once again but was interrupted by Agent Booth.

"Those things attacked them, they fought back and were injured, they don't have anywhere to go so they're staying with Dr. Brennan." They looked at us with pity and I shrugged. "So I think introductions are in order." He nodded at the two people who had just walked in letting them know to go first. "And let them know what you do, they're not to keen on doctors."

They gave us strange looks that we ignored, "I'm Dr. Hodgins, I'm an entomologist, mineralogist, and a palynologist." Expecting the strange looks we gave him he continued, "I'm the Bug and Slime Guy. You can call me Jack if you want," I nodded. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Iggy and Gazzy smile at this.

"I'm Dr. Saroyan, I'm a pathologist, I-,"

I interrupted her, "We know what that is." She gave us a short look before continuing.

"Okay, well then I'm also the head of the Forensic Division here, you can call me Cam."

Angela chimed in, "You already met me, but I'm Angela Montenegro. I'm a specialist in forensic facial reconstruction, and I'm also an artist."

Again I found myself nodding for a lack of better thing to do and after that I just stood there. I heard Agent Booth clear his throat and I looked up at him as if I didn't know what he wanted. He smiled, "Your turn."

I narrowed my eyes, "Fine, I'm Max. This is Fang, Iggy, Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge." I pointed at each of the flock as I said their name.

"Interesting names," Cam said.

Angel spoke up, "We named ourselves." They all looked at her like she had grown a second head, which I really hope she hadn't. I looked over at her, nope, all good.

"What about your parents?"

I shrugged, "Never had any, didn't grow up in foster care, the only person who took care of us left a few years ago."

"Do you have last names?" I shook my head, then stopped myself.

"I kind of do. My full name is Maximum Ride. I gave it to myself. Other than that no."

There was a brief silence as they took this information in. Dr. Hodgins was the one to break the silence, something for some reason I think he did on a regular basis, "So how old are all of you?"

Ah a seemingly easy question, "Fang, me, and Iggy are all fourteen. Nudge is eleven. Gazzy's eight and Angel is six." I answered as nonchalantly as I could, then added under my breath, "That's approximately of course."

"Approximately?" Jack asked confused.

"You caught that?" he nodded. "We don't actually know when we were born. But the ages are about right."

"So where did you live before?" Cam asked.

"All over, we didn't really live in any specific place for too long." I was really hoping they didn't keep pushing this but you can't always get what you want.

"What kinds of places did you live?" she wasn't letting it go.

"We stayed wherever we found a safe place. Most often it was the woods."

There was another short silence, "Safe from what?" I looked at Angela who had asked the question.

My jaw clenched as I looked down at my hands which I had just noticed I was fiddling with. I opened my mouth to speak but the openness of the situation was getting to me and this was pushing it. I wasn't about to let my calm façade slip so I was actually glad when Angel said, "from those things you found."

If they were confused or appalled before, well let's just multiply that by twenty. I quickly got over my silent spell as I added, "among other things." I turned my head to Angel subtly, _Thank you sweetie._

_"Your welcome Max,"_ she was still holding on to the bear she had gotten back in New York. She really did look like an innocent little six-year-old right now, if they only knew.

Just then I thought of something, "How many of them did you find?"

Cam picked up a folder she had set down after first coming into the office and opened it. "All 8 bodies were delivered to the Jeffersonian."

Agent Booth grabbed the file from her hands and stared at it annoyed, "Where'd the other thirty bodies go?"

"The people who sent them after us tend to try to clean up their messes." They looked at me wondering who it was. I shut my mouth tight letting them know they weren't going to find out anything else.

Before anyone could ask any more questions, Angel piped up with the exact wrong thing to say, "Even if you do get fingerprints or something, you're not going to be able to find out anything about us or them."

I gave her a look but the doctors actually managed to beat me to it. Still I gave her a look, _What were you thinking?_

_"They were going to try to get some DNA from us," _I nodded. They were still looking at us wondering why she had said that when I shrugged and said, "It's true, we don't technically exist, well at least not according to any legal documents."

They stared at us unbelievingly and Angel spoke out loud this time, "They don't believe us Max."

"I didn't think they would," I turned to the doctors, "you can check our fingerprints all you want, but you're not getting any of our DNA."

"Well we won't unless-" Booth cleared his throat Cam turned towards Booth who gave her a look, "Alright no DNA." she said.

"Thanks," I mumbled

Just then a head popped in telling the doctors that someone wanted them on the platform, whatever that meant. They glanced at each other, Angela rolled her eyes and turned to us, "You guys can stay here if you want, I have some paint and paper." She said it like a bribe, it didn't really appeal to me but Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge nodded excitedly. I raised a single eyebrow, Iggy frowned slightly, and Fang, well Fang just sat there with the same look on his face.

"You three can come with us if you would like." Dr. Brennan said, I looked at Iggy and Fang and nodded.

I gave the other three a look and said, "Behave." I followed the adults out the door into the large foul smelling room. I sighed, looking at the platform in front of me. I could smell the Erasers from all the way over here. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

AN: I'm sorry about not updating for a few months. My parent's put a parental lock on my computer and wouldn't let me use it until this week. As of this tomorrow I will be a high school graduate, so that means more free time!


	5. Tests

Disclaimer: I do not own Bones or Maximum Ride. (This goes for the last chapter as well. Thank you to Hideout Writer for pointing out that I forgot the disclaimer.)

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c(")(")

* * *

The feeling of dread that had been swirling in my stomach began to grow as we walked closer and closer to the platform where the scent of chemicals and Eraser was overpowering. Iggy had a finger hooked onto the belt loop of my pants so he didn't have to worry about walking into anything or anyone. Fang followed close behind; I knew he was not feeling completely up to par because he was very careful about how he moved and even more careful about not letting anyone bump into him.

Standing at the entrance to the platform already was Dr. Sweets. He glanced at all of our faces looking at them carefully noting each of the expressions we were wearing. He paused at Iggy noting the finger he had hooked on the loop on my pants. He gave a slight nod of his head, "Hello, again."

I answered, "Hey."

"You already met these kids?" Dr. Hodgins asked.

"I was there when Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth found them. How are you feeling Fang?"

I looked over at him, he shrugged and continued looking around at the equipment around the lab. There were random plants located all over the place I noticed now. I didn't feel as nervous here as I did in other labs. My stomach was still twisted in knots though from the smell of the chemicals and the Erasers together. I shook off the feeling for now.

I stopped short as the adults paused at the small staircase to the platform. Dr. Brennan ran a card through a scanner and I heard a beeping sound as a green light flashed. They walked up the stairs and tried to find somewhere to stand. I say tried because most of the free space was taken up by wheeling metal tables with morphed Erasers layed on top. Oh what these doctors must have thought.

I leaned up against the railing running along the outside if the platform and watched as Iggy and Fang did the same. Dr. Sweets stood near us and watched us carefully, Booth must have called him to come try and get more information out of us. Jack went over to a computer and opened a window that showed several different colorful graphs. "I tried to identify where they came from but the varying amount of minerals made it so that I can only tell you that they were all over the country, but most predominantly in the western United States."

"Thank you Dr. Hodgins."

"There's something else, I thought it might have been an error with the machine when I went to run a DNA search, but I calibrated the machines and checked it multiple times. There were some abnormalities in the blood. When I went to run the search it told me that the blood was not human. I ran it again to make sure but it told me the same thing. So when I checked it I found that the DNA itself is actually a percentage wolf." My jaw clenched as Cam tried to explain the "abnormalities" with the blood.

Dr. Brennan just nodded she already knew most of this. "Wendell do you have any information for me?"

"Well since the flesh is still on the bodies, I can't tell a whole lot from the bones but I did take x-rays of one of the things and found that many of the fractures were caused not by a weapon but a person or, considering the vast quantity of bodies, multiple people. All extremely strong and well trained in combat." The guy who had come to get Dr. B earlier, Wendell I guess, walked over to one of the bodies. "One of the things I noticed while looking at the bodies was on the back of their necks."

As he turned over the head so we could see the neck, I looked at Fang and Iggy. They both knew what was on the back of the Erasers neck. Dr. Hodgins walked over to where the other guy was and looked at the back of the Erasers ."What the heck is that?"

I briefly looked at the exposed neck of the Eraser and saw yesterdays date. Of course they would send a batch of Erasers that were about to expire, I guess it was a good thing that they had though otherwise they would have gotten us. Dr. Sweets looked over at us as he had been for the past couple of minutes, but this time he must have seen my face grow angry. I knew he had when seconds later he leaned a little closer and quietly asked me, "Max do you know what those numbers are?" I looked back to the Erasers and nodded ignoring the fact that he was basically asking me what they were. "Are you going to tell me?" I shrugged and saw Agent Booth walking over, great.

"Sweets, what are you talking to them about?" He stood close to Dr. Sweets who was already close to me. They were both getting way too close, I tried to lean a little away from them but couldn't because of the railing already pushing into my back, so I just stood there.

"Back up," Fang for the first time today spoke in front of the adults who at this point were all staring at us. They seemed surprised at first about hearing his voice, not that he was rude about the way he said it. It actually sounded really polite, for Fang.

Agent Booth however seemed confused, so, I clarified for him, "Please back up, we are all extremely claustrophobic." He nodded and took a step back as Dr. Sweets leaned away and moved a little farther away, letting us relax a little, "Thanks."

"So what was it you were asking Max?" Agent Booth asked.

Before Dr. Sweets could respond I answered the question, "He was asking if I knew what the numbers meant." He looked at me as if he wanted me to continue, so I indulged him, "I do."

"OK, so what do they mean?" I stayed still not breaking eye contact with him until Iggy answered his lingering question.

"They're expiration dates," he said, disgust in his voice. Their eyes were suddenly fully alert and as they looked at the numbers they widened at the sight of yesterdays date. Iggy continued before anyone asked him to. "If you haven't already figured it out, they," he said gesturing in the general direction of the Erasers, "are human-lupine hybrids. They are an experiment and because of the instability of them they age at an increased rate, so once they reach a certain age, the date appears on the back of their neck telling when they are going to _expire_. When that date comes a poison is released into their bodies killing them, it's probably a compound that's hidden by something else."

There was an extremely awkward pause as they tried to let the information settle in. Dr. B however walked over to us and quietly spoke to us, "You didn't tell us about the expiration dates."

"We didn't know that's how these Erasers died, remember Angel was the only one who was conscious and the only one who saw what happened to them." I knew I hadn't answered the question she meant, but I waited to see if she asked again.

"I think what Dr. Brennan meant was _why _did you leave out the expiration date part of the story." He looked to Dr. B and she nodded but looked annoyed at Dr. Sweets for saying what she meant even if he was right.

I stood trying to figure out how to word my response for a second, "We don't really talk about it, even with each other."

Dr. Sweets looked between the three of us until his eyes flashed with realization, "Max, do they put that poison in all of their . . . erm."

"Experiments?" I asked. He didn't want to call us by it but he wanted to know if we would find expiration dates on our necks at some point. He nodded, "All of the Erasers have it in them, but we don't know if we do. Since Erasers age at a really fast rate and we don't we figure it's less likely, plus they consider us a success."

"But you could?" I turned to Agent Booth who had began to edge forward again, this time though he was angry. I could tell he was mad at the people who did this to us but he was also upset we wouldn't tell him more. I simply nodded in response to his question.

There was a pause as Jack, Wendell, and Cam tried to hear what we were talking about. Dr. B turned to them and asked them if they had any more information for her, when they all said no she asked them to run some tests I can't remember the name of let alone pronounce.

They walked us away from the platform until we got back to Dr. B's office. The door was closed as the smell of chemicals was trapped with us. I took a few short breaths before realizing I was going to make myself hyperventilate. I calmed down enough to notice that Fang looked extremely uncomfortable and was eying the door and Iggy had placed his hand directly next to mine as if waiting for instructions.

"Why are you so claustrophobic?" Dr. B was not beating around the bush on this one.

I tried to decide if I had already given them too much information. I looked at Fang and Iggy who both shrugged knowing the advice I was going to ask them for. I bit my lip and looked straight into Dr. Brennan's eyes, "When we were at the School, we were kept in crates, those kind they use for animals in kennels. When we weren't in those, we were either having medical tests performed on us or having to fight or run to prove that we were useful. Angel got it really bad the last time we were in there, they made her run barefoot through mazes for hours, if she stopped running her feet would be electrocuted. She had large amounts of blood drawn and was given very little to eat. I assume that also answers the question about why we hate the smell of chemicals." They nodded jaws on the verge of dropping. "So why did you tell them to run all those tests when you know they won't turn up anything?"

"If they aren't at least trying to find something it will look suspicious," I nodded accepting this.

I looked at the door, then back to the adults, "Can we go back with the others?" Dr. B nodded and led the way back to Angela's office.

We hung back a little so we could talk privately. Fang leaned over to me and whispered, "Dramatic much?" Iggy snickered.

I kept my head straight as I whispered back, "I want them to understand why we aren't telling them everything."

Iggy looked towards me seriously this time, "I think the more they know about us, the more they want to help us. Agent Booth seemed like he was ready to track down whoever was responsible." Fang and I both stopped in our tracks and turned to Iggy. "I meant his voice and the way he walked, his footsteps sounded like he was angry."

When we got back to the office, I saw the other three members of my family sitting quietly for what must have been the first time ever. Well Angel and Gazzy were quiet, Nudge on the other hand was talking non-stop to Angela, the woman who she had just met under an hour ago. Almost in sync with the chatter, Angela was brushing Nudge's unruly hair, something I have never had the patience or time to do. I sat down and leaned against a wall, wincing as my wing hit it. Iggy sat down next to me and seconds later Fang slowly lowered himself to the floor on the other side of me. It only took a few seconds for Angel to realize we were sitting there and when she did I had two little blond monsters running over and tackling me. I gave them both a hug and sent them back over to their drawings which they happily showed us, making sure that every little detail was pointed out.

* * *

The two doctors and the grad student were left to wonder what kind of case they were working. Wendell was confused as to whether or not he had missed something. Cam knew that she did not have as much control as their bosses thought she did and she had accepted that a while ago, but she did not find the amount of information she was being given even close to what it should be. She was thinking about going to ask Dr. Brennan to tell her more but the children were around her since they walked in. The other doctor had many questions and one of them was why his questions were not going to be answered. He wanted to know who was keeping them from answering his questions. Dr. Hodgins was by nature a questioning person, but when they weren't even being given enough information to even figure out what the case was about, he became upset. His fist came down on the table in front of him, "I call cover up."

Dr. Saroyan rolled her eyes at the conspiracy theorist fuming before her, "Are you suggesting the kids, the ones upstairs who, I might add the youngest is six years old, are part of a cover up?"

"Maybe if they're . . " he trailed off not being able to think of a way they could be a part of a cover up.

"I just want to know where these things came from. Dr. Brennan didn't even get upset with me when called them things. Also, who are those kids?" The youngest of the three was extremely confused about the situation

"I noticed that too, I just have to hope that they will tell us soon, so we can solve this case. These things are really starting to creep me out. The kids, they're interesting. They named themselves, have no parents they know of, and told us they have been running from those things for years. I had only thought about getting fingerprints and DNA before they refused and said that they didn't even really exist. I think they know what happened." Cam said, as the others silently agreed. "We still shouldn't ask unless we absolutely need to." The three agreed and went their separate ways running the necessary tests.

* * *

The next day we were back at the Jeffersonian, there were no questions today, just a whole lot of tests being run on the Erasers. With every test they ran the doctors got more and more confused. As promised our fingerprints were taken and checked against all possible matches in a really long list of databases. They tried multiple times to find matches but there was none. They looked through missing persons databases to see if any pictures matched us, but again they failed. Agent Booth told us just to let them, they wouldn't find anything anyways but it was in their nature to try until they got something.

A little after lunch we were sitting around reading (if you can believe it), Iggy was listening to some music Agent Booth had given him to listen to, when Cam came in asking to speak to Dr. B and Agent Booth privately. They told us to wait while they were talking to her. A minute or two later we heard the door pushed open, Cam walking out rolling her eyes. She stood looking at us as the adults walked out behind her.

She opened her mouth as if to say something but closed it shook her head and a she nodded her head at us and walked away. I raised a single eyebrow questioningly.

Agent Booth sighed, "See you later." Before I could ask what they had talked about, he shook his head, glancing over at the others, "Not right now."

Once we got a free moment away from the younger ones, the adults told us some "bad news." At least it was bad news according to Cam. Some other branch of the government had supposedly stepped in and taken over their investigation. The Erasers were taken away and the Jeffersonian team was to stop looking into it. For now we were free to do what we wanted, though it was advised we stayed with Dr. Brennan.

* * *

After about a week we kinda fell into a routine; get up, go with the adults to work, try not to cause any trouble, go somewhere for dinner, and go back to Dr. B's for the night. We kept busy, Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth told us that if we weren't being forced to go to school we should at least be learning something. So we ended up spending a lot of time reading or trying anyways. We took turns reading aloud to Iggy up until it was discovered that we were not the best readers. After that Iggy listened to audiobooks most of the time. Occasionally Dr. B would try to teach us something else, but that usually only lasted for a little while before one or all of us lost focus.

One night we went to the diner for supper after we were done at the Jeffersonian. When we

got there the waiter greeted us and gave us a more secluded table. I knew now that they came here a lot. We ordered our dinner and sat there talking about random stuff. Some of it didn't have to do with the case but they did ask a few questions about the School. We answered a few of them but a lot of them we ignored because they were trying to figure out more about where the School was located. After we finished eating we walked outside and that's when the trouble began.

It was dark and we didn't look around the corner until it was too late. By the time I realized what was happening, I was being grabbed by a clawed hand. I wrapped my arm around theirs and flipped them over. They fell to the ground with a loud thump, wind knocked out of them. I ran over to help Dr. B with the one she was trying to fight off. She was doing a good job but the Eraser was trying to get at her with his claws. I got behind him and swept his feet out from under him. He tried to get up when I immediately punched him and he was back down on the ground. For a while my mind was in automatic, the punches and kicks coming without having to think about them. Then I heard Angel's scream, then everything seemed to go in slow motion. The Erasers rushed off suddenly into a nearby alleyway and I saw the others hurrying over to help Angel. I sped over there, her leg had long deep gashes on it and it was bleeding ferociously. I looked around for something I could use to stop the blood. I saw Agent Booth come hurrying out of the diner a towel in his hand. He placed the towel on the gashes and pushed down trying to stop the bleeding, at this point Angel had passed out from blood loss.

I looked around and saw the alleyway the Erasers had run into. I tried to keep calm as I found my way to the place where I would supposedly find at least one or two furry people. I walked over to the wall fists clenched, I couldn't believe I had let Angel get hurt, again! I punched the wall as I let out my aggravations. I heard footsteps behind me and I turned around ready to attack when I saw Dr. B approaching. "Max, stop, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong? Angel's hurt again because they found us because I was too careless." My words sounded harsh and cruel, but I didn't care.

"You were not too careless. You were trying to do what was right, making sure your family had a place to stay. You had to make sure they were safe from other things too not just those Erasers. You need to stop punishing yourself. It's not your fault those things are after you."

"I know, but it's my fault they know where to find us." She looked at me confused. I sighed, "You know how I said we've been shot at before?" she nodded. "Well I got shot back in Arizona, trying to stop these guys from hurting a girl. Her mom helped me out, she was a veterinarian but she was really good with my shoulder. She took me to her clinic and just to make sure I'd be okay, she took an x-ray of my wing and shoulder where I got hit. When she was checking the x-rays .she noticed a small square object embedded in my arm. She said it looked like a tracking chip like the kind they implant in animals so their owners can find them. She also said that I couldn't remove it without losing use of my arm."

"So you think it's being used to track you?" I nodded, "We'll see what we can do about that, but for now stop blaming yourself. Now let me see your hands." I lifted them for her to look at. My knuckles were bloodied from punching the concrete wall. The scrapes had closed almost fully and the blood had already begun to dry on the skin. She shook her head, "I don't think I'll be able to get used to that."

I smiled at her shock as we walked back to where the others were. Agent Booth was holding Angel whose leg now had another towel tied around it. The originally white towel was now blood-soaked. Gazzy was sitting with Iggy and Nudge. I looked around for Fang. I was about to call out to him when Dr. B did instead. I immediately saw him shift from one foot to the other, he had been leaning against the window to the restaurant we had left right before the Erasers attacked. Dr. B jumped a little and shook her head. She then walked over to Agent Booth and put her hand on his shoulder and they glanced at each other. He nodded to her and motioned for us to follow him. It was like when Fang and me when we didn't want to say something in front of the younger kids. They got up and followed him. Fang walked over to me as I stood by Iggy reaching out and telling him we were going back to the car. He grabbed my hand as I helped him up. We walked back to the large SUV. For the first time Dr. B was driving, she motioned for one of us to sit up front as I climbed in I saw Agent Booth in the back seat still holding Angel. It was a quiet ride back to Dr. Brennan's place.

We walked into the living room behind Agent Booth. He laid Angel down as Dr. B came back into the room with a bottle, some wet cloths, and something to wrap Angel's leg with. She handed one to me and I wiped off my knuckles. She gave the rest to Agent Booth who started to clean off the excess blood. I saw now how deep the cut was. He grabbed the bottle and poured some of the peroxide onto the cloth. Before it even touched the cut Angel started whimpered, her eyes grew wide as her whimpers turned to sobs. I rushed over to her. I called her name as she cried out. When she looked at me she her tears stopped and I hugged her close to me. She cried as I heard her mumble a few words, "I thought I was back there, I thought I had gotten captured again."

"No sweetie I won't let that happen. Can you let Agent Booth and Dr. B clean up your leg?" she looked at me for a few seconds calming down then nodded her head and turned to look at Agent Booth.

"Really?" she asked. When he nodded, she smiled and turned to me. "Max, he said we could call him Seeley if we wanted."

"Really?" I asked. When he nodded I smiled and said, "OK."

He began carefully cleaning her cut, then wrapping bandages around it. Once he was done she sat up all the way, her tear-streaked face smiling. "Thank you."

I looked at her, "Angel what happened? You're usually so careful."

"One of them knew something about our real parents." My eyes grew wide as she answered someones unspoken question. "I didn't learn any more than we already knew from the papers, so it was really careless to listen instead of paying attention to the fight. Sorry Max."

"Angel, you did nothing wrong. Don't worry about it." She nodded but seemed unsure of what I said to her. I hadn't noticed but Dr. B had gone to get some pain medication for Angel. She refused it but after my encouragement she took it. I assumed it would wear off after a short while anyways.  
In the time it took for the medicine to kick in Angel fell asleep. The others washed up and crashed. Fang and I stayed up to talk with the adults. I had been anticipating this conversation since Angel mentioned what we knew about our parents earlier.

"I thought you said that you didn't know anything about your parents."

I looked right into Age- uh Seeley's eyes, "We don't. We know that it's possible that years ago our biological parents might have lived in this general area. Every time we find something out it's different from the previous story. The only thing that's stayed the same is that there hasn't been any information on my parents, if I have any that is." I tried to keep my expression stony and cool, but I was getting aggravated. With what? I have no idea.

There was an awkward pause as they thought about this new information. "Can we please see the papers?"

I didn't say anything just walked quietly into the other room where the bag was and brought it out to them. I pulled the stack of crinkled papers out of the bag and set them on the table. They each picked up a few and looked through them. Seeley found one of the pages that had some addresses and held it up, "How do you know who the information is about?"

I looked at the paper he was holding up, searching for a familiar string of numbers and letters. When I found them I pointed, "That's Iggy."

He whispered a quiet oh and set it aside. Dr. B held up a few of the papers, "A lot of the information looks like it is encrypted."

"Probably, the information that she overheard might not even be true. The Erasers are never told any information other than their target and the location of the target. So, if they knew something more,"

"Then it was most likely planted. They were hoping that Angel would overhear," Seeley finished looking upset, I nodded at his conclusion. "Well do you want to check if any of the information is true here?"

I nodded and for the first time in a while I fell asleep with a small amount of the extra large weight on my shoulders gone.

* * *

AN) I'm sorry I haven't updated in such a long time. I would give you excuses but it comes down to me being grounded for a while and after that I was away for four weeks and after that I was getting ready to leave for college. Good news though, I haave a lot of free time and no parental locks so reviews should, I repeat should, come more often. Reviews are always welcome. Also if anyone has ever been in or seen a production of the musical Curtains let me know.


	6. Confrontation

AN) I hate putting one of these at the beginning of a chapter, but this chapter has more of the Bones characters and I've been watching the new season so my mind is getting a little jumbled. I've decided to make a few minor changes. In the first chapter I posted on when this story takes place. It was originally set after Booth has the brain tumor and during the beginning of School's Out Forever after they get in the fight with the Erasers with wings. Now it takes place after Hannah leaves only for continuity purposes. So, yeah Angela and Hodgins are married and she is pregnant. When I said the FBI knows nothing about Erasers and all that I meant as far as Booth and his immediate superiors know. I was stuck on this chapter for a while because of the timing issues and also because of finals and then just studying and homework.

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride or Bones.

* * *

The way things went the next day were not surprising with the luck we had the night before. We had all already healed from our injuries the week before. Iggy's arm was still sore but he could manage with it. Now though, we had fresh wounds., most noticeably was Angel though. She was still tired the next day so Fang carried her on his back on the way into the lab. She slept on a chair in Dr. B's office for most of the morning.

We were all tired and annoyed about last night. A little while after we got in Dr. B and Seeley had to leave to follow a lead. Angela agreed to keep an eye on us and Jack even showed up and offered to show Iggy and Gazzy an experiment he was working on. The two of them happily agreed and went with him for a while. I didn't hear about how it went until an hour after Iggy and Gazzy came back. After the two of them left Jack's office, they came back and said nothing about what had happened. I asked how it went but they just said it went fine.

When Dr. B came back with Seeley, she came and asked us why Dr. Hodgins was asking them if they knew Iggy was blind. Before anyone could ask Iggy, he stormed out. Angel had woken up by this point and told us to let him calm down, so Seeley asked Gazzy to explain what happened.

According to Gazzy, they were watching Jack do the experiment when something wicked cool happened with two of the chemicals that he mixed together. Iggy didn't know what was going on so he asked what happened. Dr. Hodgins repeated all of the chemical interactions going on and what he added. Iggy said he understood that, he wanted to know what it looked like. Before Gazzy could describe it to him, Jack pointed out that he was looking right at it when it happened. After that, their discussion went downhill. Iggy gave up on trying to trick everyone and stated very calmly that he couldn't see it. At this point Jack thought he was, he told him to stop joking around. Instead of getting annoyed, Iggy stood up and slowly walked out. Gazzy followed to make sure he didn't walk into anything but before he left he stated that Iggy was blind.

Now Jack was apparently confused and wanted to know why he didn't just tell him in the first place. Cam and Angela now knew as well and they were extremely surprised. I heard Iggy's voice coming from outside the door, "I can hear you there." I walked outside flashing a quick signal to the others to stay where they were. Dr. B and Seeley followed me and by the time I got out there and up the stairs Cam, Angela, and Hodgins were standing a few yards from where Iggy was sitting on the edge of the balcony, arms wrapped around the bars. Everyone was hesitant on who should approach him. I walked past the others and sat down next to him, positioning myself the same way he had. We spoke quietly knowing even our softer whispers wouldn't be audible to the adults. "If you hang the right way, the air from the vent feels kinda like a draft when we're flying."

I felt the air on my head and looked up at the vent, it was large and a good ten feet above our heads. It did feel similar, but not nearly close enough. "You want to see if we can go to the park later, fly around for a while?"

"Yeah," his answer was quiet but definitive.

"What else is wrong?"

"I just got kinda upset when my joke on the doctors kinda stopped me from being able to try and "see" what was going on. I probably should have told them before now."

"Well now they know," I smiled at him.

He smirked and nodded, "Yeah they definitely do." His head turned toward where the three adults were whispering, or at least trying to. I could even hear them whispering, Iggy called over to them, "They should also know I have an over-developed sense of hearing." We stood up and the others came a little closer.

I spoke to Dr. B, "Do you think we could go to the park later? Maybe get some energy out, I know the younger kids would enjoy it."

She nodded, "I can take you as soon as I finish with the identifications I'm working on."

"Hey Bones, you want me to just take them in a few minutes? We're not getting the results for a while right?"

"That would be much more productive," Iggy smiled a little at Dr. B's response. None of us had been able to go flying over the past week and we were all getting antsy. They agreed we should get out for a little while.

"So," I turned to the three others who were pretending not to listen. "It's obvious by now that Iggy can't see but I think he wants to talk to you about that."

They all looked at him expectantly and he turned and glared at me. "Fine, yeah I'm blind, that's it." He turned around and went to walk away punching my arm as he walked by. Jack opened his mouth to ask something but was stopped by the glare I directed his way.

"Just don't let it change how you treat him." I spoke as quietly as I could knowing Iggy could probably hear anyways.

"But how-" Jack tried again to ask a question, this time his voice lowered slightly.

Iggy's voice came from the bottom of the stairs, "I hope you know I can hear everything you're saying."

Jack's mouth shut instantly and his eyes grew wide. I smiled my eyes not breaking contact with his, I spoke in almost a whisper, "Well they know now."

In between his laughs Iggy's voice rang through, "Sure do, coming Max?"

I kept my eyes pinned on Jack's backing towards the stairs slowly, "Yep." Iggy and I held the majority of our laughter all the way till Dr. B's office, then we burst out laughing and telling the others about what happened.

* * *

The Jeffersonian team sans Booth and Brennan gathered in Angela's office. One of them in specific hopes of gathering and sharing intel on the kids just a short ways away.

"Okay so we know that they were found with those things that they took away and they were injured. All of them are extremely claustrophobic and they apparently dislike medical doctors. They have no parents that they know of and there are no records anywhere of them. Booth and Brennan know about them but refuse to tell us. It's possible Sweets knows about them as well. I asked him, but he refused to say anything."

A knowing look passed between the coroner and the artist as they listened to Jack Hodgins rant on trying to find out more about the children who had suddenly turned up in their lives. "Sweetie calm down, they're quirky, but their sweet kids."

"I have to agree with Angela, the kids are just cautious and probably with good reason, there's no point in starting your own personal investigation. If you really want to know something just ask Agent Booth."

"I did and he told me to stop asking questions about the kids and just wait for them to talk to us." The girls rolled there eyes at one another and found the suspicious doctor staring at them annoyed. "I'm serious I am going to go talk to Sweets and he is going to tell me what's going on."

"Considering the amount of trauma it appears they have gone through and their reluctance to trust us, us trying to go behind their backs is probably not the best idea in the current situation. I say we give them more time and good reason to trust us, it's possible that then they will talk to us."

"I really have to go with Cam on this one. Put yourself in their shoes, just when you felt safe would you want to be questioned nonstop. Just wait for a little while longer," Angela smiled and looked him in the eyes. "Please?"

His sigh sounded throughout the room, "You have a point. Okay I'll stop for a while, but anything else and I'm going to Booth again."

"Go back to your office so you're not tempted."

After a roll of his eyes he backed away, "Fine, see you in a little while."

He stormed out of the room leaving the two women smiling. "You have him wrapped around your finger."

"It's a gift and now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to let you follow him to make sure he goes straight to his office."

"Oh, believe me, I will."

The two went their separate ways leaving the artist to work on her now lengthening list of things to do. She thought over her husbands rant on the kids who were still a mystery. She knew there were a few things off about them. Like that the youngest Angel knew things that it didn't always seem she should know. Or that Iggy who was blind had commented on Gazzy's drawing he had done, mentioning how he liked all the orange when the color hadn't been mentioned.

* * *

When we got to the park it was mostly abandoned. There were a few infants and toddlers out for walks with their moms and a few elderly people scattered among them. We found an area with no one in it and checked one more time before shrugging off our windbreakers and launching ourselves into the air. We rose up into the air until we wouldn't be recognizable as bird kids any more. I looked down at Seeley's face and smiled, he hadn't seen us fly before and his jaw had actually dropped. Laughing I did a flip in the air enjoying the rush of air in my face. Moments later the others joined in and any tension from the last few hours disappeared.

I heard giggles coming from Nudge and Angel. A slight but of pressure hit my wing as I tried another flip. The wing had healed fairly well over the past week, but because there were no stitches it was still not healed fully. As much as I enjoyed flying I preferred my wing remaining not in pain. I called out to the others as soon as I found somewhere discreet to land. Fang said that he would join me and followed me to the small space where we landed surrounded by trees.

I watched Seeley's expression as Fang and I walked towards him. His eyes darted back and forth between us and the sky where he thought we were still flying around. The next thing I knew there was another familiar face standing near the bench we were quickly approaching. Before Seeley could say anything I called out to him with as much innocence as I could muster up, "Jack, what are you doing here?"

"Just thought I'd stop by and see if I could keep you company." As my eyebrows rose any thoughts he'd had that he had fooled me disappeared. "Okay, I wanted to say sorry to Iggy and see if I could show him another experiment. Well not exactly show, more have him listen to it, he'll really like it, promise."

"That'll be up to him."

"So, where is he?" he started looking around searching the area for the others.

"Uh, um, uh," I stammered as I tried to think of something.

"Hide and Seek." the words came from Fang's mouth before I even realized he had spoken.

I nodded, and looked back at the trees we had come from. "You don't talk much do you?" When I turned around he was looking at Fang, who in turn shrugged. "Is it just me, or do you not talk in general?"

When Fang didn't answer I punched his arm full force, without changing his expression he glared at me, a glare that only someone who truly knew him would notice, "In general."

"It's very rare that we hear a full sentence from him." The trees behind Jack rustled and I heard a giggle.

"Good to know, I'm glad I get the same amount of words as everyone else." Jack seemed a bit happier now.

A twig snapped in the tree and I saw Angel climb down, "Not everyone else, he talks to Max more than anyone." She managed to use only her good leg as she made her way down the tree. She limped over to the bench Seeley was still sitting on and hopped onto it beside him. She looked at Jack for a second and I was worried about what she was going to hear when she spoke to him. "I hurt my leg playing with Gazzy and I was in the tree because that's where I was hiding for hide-and-seek."

"How do you do that?" Jack's stare was directed at Angel, her confused act fooled him and he continued. "How do you know what people are going to ask you?"

"I don't I'm just really good at reading people's expressions. You were staring at my leg and watching me limp. And who wouldn't want to know why I was in a tree?"

"Point taken."

"Don't you have tests to run?"

"Don't you have a murder to solve?" Seeley and Jack argued back and forth, but I quickly realized that it was just how they acted towards each other.

"Can't do anything until you finish the tests."

"Why don't we go find the others see if they want to play something else." Fang and I walked over to the bench Angel was now standing on and she carefully climbed onto his back. We walked over to a more heavily sheltered area. Fang let Angel down and the trees around us were suddenly rustling. Three distinct sets of feet hit the ground around us and we sat under the trees simply enjoying the fresh air and the lack of traffic. For a good minute we sat in silence just happy about the fact that we were all safe and relatively unharmed.

"So, the Voice keeps telling me to trust the rest of the team, opinions?"

There was a short burst of silence before the opinions erupted, "They're really nice and they haven't done anything not to deserve our trust. I mean they are always really, rea-humf." A hand shot out and covered Nudge's mouth.

Iggy removed his hand and spoke, "I think it'll be easier if they know."

"Yeah, and then we won't have to lie so much," Gazzy was smiling excitedly.

"Jack's a conspiracy theorist," Fang's answer was completely noncommittal. "But he seems pretty cool."

"I think we should tell them," Angel's voice was firm, "they already suspect something, especially Jack. We haven't been as careful as we thought."

"So we all agree we should tell them?" A short round of nods later and it was settled. "So when and how?"

"A little at a time and just the basics to start," Iggy offered.

"So just about our wings and abilities and how we got them."

Gazzy frowned, "What about Erasers?"

"Well they're definitely a part of how we got wings, so I guess them too."

"Jeb and Ari?" Fang's question was directed specifically at me, he knew that it was a touchy subject for all of us, but me especially. What would we tell them? Maybe if we just didn't tell them, "Max?"

"Only if we need to," the others nodded and we stretched our wings out one more time before getting up and putting our windbreakers back on. "Let's go."

We stacked our fists and made our way out of the small gathering of trees we were sitting by. Seeley and Jack were now laughing with each other, the fake argument from earlier forgotten. The two looked up and saw us approaching them, they stopped laughing but the smiles remained on their faces.

I walked right up to Jack and looked him in the eyes, "We need to talk to you, all of you, somewhere we won't be overheard, you figure it out."

"About what?" he was extremely confused but he looked intrigued as well.

"About us and until we actually talk we're not gonna say any more."

"Okay, I guess we could talk back at the lab."

"Not gonna happen, there are security cameras all over the place."

"Then where are we supposed to meet?"

I started walking away smirking, "You figure it out." I turned around briefly, "Oh and it has to be pretty big. See you soon."

When I turned back around I was met with stifled giggles and an eye roll. I just kept walking not giving Jack the satisfaction of me looking back.

* * *

AN) Oh man, it's been HOW long since I updated? 8 months! Yikes, well all I can say is this is what happens when you live two minutes away from all of your friends and your computer completely breaks 4 times and you have to replace it once. Also because I was a part of three musicals over the last two semesters I was exhausted and sick as I was typing this. I had to rewrite this so many times because of the current season of Bones, and as much as I want to complain it was a great season with a great ending. I'm gonna try to update more often but I'm working possibly three different jobs this summer, two week long camps, and I'm also working on my own original novel more often now. Review are always welcome and feel free to flame, I would love some criticism.


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